13205 - Aadhaar linking, DBT scheme helped govt save Rs 830 billion: Niti CEO Kant

Aadhaar linking, DBT scheme helped govt save Rs 830 billion: Niti CEO Kant

Centre linked 437 scheme under DBT, knocked off 27 million fake ration cards

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

Last Updated at April 4, 2018 22:29 IST

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

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Making a strong pitch for digitisation, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday said the government has been able to save Rs 830 billion through direct benefit transfer scheme.

He said that advantages of digitisation are so enormous in making India a progressive, effective society.

India needs to move forward aggressively and radically on this front but under strong privacy law, he said at an NCAER event.

"The linkage of Aadhaar and DBT has helped the government save close Rs 830 billion. We have linked 437 scheme under DBT. We have knocked off 27 million fake ration cards," he said.

Besides, PFMS has been very an efficient and effective tool for monitoring of government funds, he said.

First Published: Wed, April 04 2018. 22:29 IST

12892 - Niti Aayog chief seeks Nandan Nilekani help on Aadhaar base for NHPS - Indian Express

Niti Aayog chief seeks Nandan Nilekani help on Aadhaar base for NHPS

As the then chairman of UIDAI, Nilekani, co-founder and currently non-executive chairman of software firm Infosys, had played an instrumental role in the roll-out of Aadhaar.

By: ENS Economic Bureau | New Delhi | Updated: February 24, 2018 3:17 am

 Former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani (Files)

Niti Aayog, the Centre’s think tank which is undertaking development of the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), has sought assistance from former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani to build a system based on Aadhaar, a senior government official said. “Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had reached out to him (Nilekani) to seek his opinion on the IT architecture for NHPS. There was a meeting regarding that between them and other officials of the programme on Wednesday,” the official said. It was not decided whether there will be such interactions in future, the official added.

As the then chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nilekani, co-founder and currently non-executive chairman of software firm Infosys, had played an instrumental role in the roll-out of Aadhaar. Asked for a comment on Niti Aayog roping in Nilekani for his assistance, Aayog’s vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar told The Indian Express that he was unaware of the development.

In his Budget speech for 2018-19 earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the NHPS. An initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated for the scheme. “We will launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. This will be the world’s largest government-funded health care programme. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme,” Jaitley had said in his speech.

Earlier this week, officials of Niti Aayog and the Health Ministry had met top management of insurance companies to seek inputs on implementation of the scheme. The annual premium on insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh for every eligible household under NHPS has been pegged at around Rs 900 to Rs 1,000 per family, lower than the earlier estimate of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200.

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11642 - Niti Aayog bats for time-bound, universal Aadhaar programme - Ecinomic Times

Niti Aayog bats for time-bound, universal Aadhaar programme

PTI|

Updated: Jul 24, 2017, 10.58 PM IST

"In this context, Niti Aayog could play a pivotal role in disseminating best practices of successful models for adoption by the states," the Aayog's appraisal document noted.

NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog has pitched for making Aadhaar programme universal in a time-bound manner for enabling better governance. 

In its appraisal of the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17), the Aayog said the Aadhaar platform needs to be broad-based and linked with beneficiary database of various government programmes for effective delivery and targeting of welfare services. 

Referring to the recommendation of the 14th finance commission, the Aayog said that while the transfer of larger funds to the states may witness significant changes in scheme design and the implementation mechanisms being adopted by individual states, there may be a need to strengthen the capacity of the states for designing, implementing and monitoring of schemes. 

"In this context, Niti Aayog could play a pivotal role in disseminating best practices of successful models for adoption by the states," the Aayog's appraisal document noted. 

The document also pointed out that despite significant improvements in health indicators and achievement of millennium development goals to a large extent, the targets of the 12th Plan were largely missed, especially with respect to maternal and child health.

On learnings from the 12th Plan in transport sector, the document noted that it has been seen that private investment in transport has slowed down, especially in the road sector, which had to be compensated by public investment.

11485 - The Link between Aadhaar, Demonetization and the Myth of Cashless Economy - KASHMIR MONITOR

The Link between Aadhaar, Demonetization and the Myth of Cashless Economy

By MUDASIR SHEIKH - Published at: May 27, 2017

According to the government of India, demonetization was meant to curb counterfeit notes, the menace of black money and to promote cashless society. Analysts believe that cash only constitutes 6% of black money in India, rest is in the form of hard assets like real estate, gold, land and a huge portion is deposited in overseas bank accounts. So demonetization has attacked a smaller part of the bigger problem. As far as cashless society is concerned, cash transactions constitute about 98% of total transactions in India and 50% of these are small value transactions. So it is not advisable to demonetize currency in a country, where such a huge percentage of transactions are in the form of cash. With the demonetization of ?500 and ?1,000 bills, the surge in Aadhaar enrolments went up by 60%. The tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and apple are praising the biometric identification project (Aadhaar) of India. The prime minister of India, Narinder Modi seems highly motivated for the introduction of cashless economy into the country. Introduction of cashless economy and biometric identification of citizens is surprise in a country like India, as nine Indian provinces account for more number of people in extreme poverty than the 24 sub-Saharan African countries put together. Irrespective of huge development in USA and other western countries there is neither cashless economy nor such a large scale biometric identification system. So what is going on behind the closed doors of Indian government? Critiques considered that introduction of Aadhaar and cashless economy is a litmus test being conducted on Indian people by treating them as guinea pigs for a highly sophisticated form of payment system, which will later be introduced into other countries. There is clear evidence regarding the influence of foreign governments, banking cartels and private corporations into these two projects.

Some researchers have considered couple of factors which have actually caused demonetization in India. First one includes the refinancing of public sector banks in India. 80% of banks in India are run by government, during the last two decades these banks have been used to lend out loans to corporations which have strong political connections. These politically affiliated businesses do not paid back their money which has resulted into the accumulation of huge amount of non-performing assets (NPAs) within these banks. From last three years warning signals were continuously coming about their collapse. Through demonetization millions of poor people have deposited their meagre sums within these banks which have resulted into their refinancing, so that they can now lend the money to the same guys who earlier do not paid back their loans.

The second factor is the influence of technological and communications companies on the government, as these companies are among the fastest growing ones during the last two decades. Making payments through digital gate ways will be very beneficial for their growth. They can expand their influence over the whole human race. The statements from technological giants like Apple, Microsoft, MasterCard, Facebook, Google etc. clearly shows their intentions behind cashless society. Tim cook the chief executive of apple said that “next generation of children will not know what money is” as he promotes “apple pay” as an alternative. MasterCard executives consider apple pay as another step towards cashless society. According to mail online MasterCard is mining Facebook users data to get consumer behaviour information which it can sell to banks. Bill gates said India will shift to digital payments, as the digital world lets you track things quickly. The acquisition of artificial intelligence companies by Google, Facebook and Microsoft is also on its peak.

Over 200 private companies using AI algorithms across different verticals have been acquired since 2012, with over 30 acquisitions taking place in Q1 of 2017 alone. Apple acquired voice recognition firm “Vocal IQ and real face Google has acquired deep learning and neural network, Facebook acquired Masquerade Technologies and Zurich Eye. 

So what is actually going on, as private corporations and governments are desperate to introduce cashless economy through biometric payment system. India with few other countries like Australia, Denmark, South Korea, United Kingdom etc. are taking biometric signatures of their citizens irrespective of legal and technological loopholes into the system. Biometric identification systems like Aadhaar in India neither grants any right to domicile in India nor is it a proof of citizenship. Data Security Council of India in a report to “Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)” listed several security threats with a centralized data store house of Aadhaar.

In a biometric payment system parties need to download an app like “Aadhaar cashless app” in India on a Smartphone which can read biometric signatures like iris and fingerprints of a person. As the Aadhaar number is linked with bank account the biometric scan will act like a password for authenticating the transaction. Amount will be deducted from a bank account to which Aadhaar of a person is linked.

Actually Government of India is prepared to introduce cashless economy by facilitating financial transactions through digital devices which will use Aadhaar for the confirmation about the personal details of a person. Ajay Panday director general of “Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDIA)” said that “Aadhaar based transactions would be cashless, card less and pin less”. Android and other devices will enable a person to use their biometric signatures for authenticating a transaction. According to Ajay Panday government of India is collaborating with mobile phone manufacturers, merchants and banks for introducing biometric payment system. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said “we are asking mobile phone manufacturers to see if all mobiles made in India should be inbuilt with Iris and Thumb identification system to help Aadhaar enabled transactions”. He further said that efforts are being made to incentivize digital transactions and disincentive cash transactions. Government is also developing a mobile phone application for shopkeepers, so as to enable them to make transactions using Aadhaar, thus bypassing cash and card transactions. According to secretory of information technology in India “Aruna Sundarajan” India will spend Rs. 100 crores for incentivizing enrollment of merchants on digital platform.
It is not necessary that a civilized society should be cashless. In Germany more than 80% of transactions involve cash, as citizen freedom and privacy is protected in such transactions. Digital economy lacks trust; it will open a way for banks and owners of digital networks to enhance their control over human race. A fully cashless economy will be a disaster for the whole world; it will only serve the interests of oligarchs who are ruling the humanity. With the full introduction of cashless economy privacy, dissent and freedom of individuals would end. Every transaction like buying, selling, travelling, medication etc. will be under the radar of government. In countries like India, there are no privacy laws and the sensitive data of citizens is also under the constant threat of hackers, intelligence agencies and big corporations. Sensitive information of person can easily be used against him, like it can be used by private corporations for targeted advertisements. Any bodies account can be blocked for any reason which can serve the interest of government or private companies. John Naughton, author of the book “From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg” said that the owners of tech companies are “robber barons” of our age. It is a digital dictatorship which has enslaved the humanity.

(An independent researcher, the writer can be reached at: mudasir.shk01@gmail.com)

11210 - We are moving to a low transaction cost digital economy: Amitabh Kant - Business Today

We are moving to a low transaction cost digital economy: Amitabh Kant

 Dipak Mondal   New Delhi     Last Updated: May 1, 2017  | 17:41 IST

The government has been pushing for digital payments ever since the demonetisation. However, cost of digital payments remain a major stumbling block for many people to embrace digital methods of transaction. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, who also heads a committee set up the government to push digital payments, tells Dipak Mondal the steps the government has taken to bring down the cost of digital payments.

How has cost of digital payments fallen over the years, say, in the past five years?

We are moving from a low volume, high transaction cost to high volume, low transaction cost digital economy. Cost of digital payments have fallen significantly over the years, both due to pro-active initiatives of Government and increased volume of transactions. RBI has progressively reduced the caps on MDR charges on debit cards since 2012. It was brought to 0.75 per cent for transactions upto Rs. 2000 and 1 per cent for above Rs 2000. Further, in December 2016, cap on debit card MDR charges was further reduced to 0.25 per cent for transactions upto Rs. 1000, 0.5 per cent for Rs. 1000-2000 transactions. In February 2017, a draft MDR policy with revised charges and new categories has been proposed and public comments have been sought. I am sure RBI will initiate measures to provide a massive impetus to digital payments movement.

Enlist some of the steps that the government has taken in the past couple of years to bring down the cost of digital payments/ transactions?

Apart from rationalising caps on MDR on debit card transactions, Government has launched and incentivised new modes of digital payments. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) is operated by banking correspondents where they are given incentives for transactions. Cost of micro ATMs, biometric devices and PoS devices have reduced quite significantly due to customs and excise duty waivers announced in the budget. Government also ran a DigiDhan campaign where 16 lakh lucky winners (users and merchants) were rewarded with prizes ranging from Rs 1000 to 1 crore. Further to incentivise behaviour change and bring down the cost of digital payments, referral and cashback schemes have also been launched for BHIM where users and merchants receive cashback. Referral Scheme awards Rs 10 cashback to referrer and Rs 25 to new user on each successful referral on BHIM.

Cashback Scheme is for merchants and awards Rs 100 for 50-100 inward transactions received by the merchant on BHIM every month if he/she receives it from at least 20 different customers. On top of 100 inward transactions, the merchant is given 50 paise per additional transaction with a cap of Rs 200. So, a merchant on BHIM can earn Rs 100-300 every month through the Cashback Scheme. On April 14th this year, the Prime Minister also launched BHIM Aadhaar, the merchant interface of the BHIM App, to ensure that citizens are able to transact digitally with just their aadhaar number, even without internet, smartphone or a mobile. This radically reduces the cost of buying expensive PoS devices by the merchant and, instead, transforms his mobile phone into a PoS device. This is a major disruptive move making digital transactions easy and simple. Every smartphone owner has the possibility of becoming a walking ATM.

The govt has recently launched the BHIM App, which allows chargeless transactions. What is the cost that the government is incurring by 'subsidising' digital transaction?

Government has led the way in rationalisation of cost of digital payments. Earlier regime of digital payments was based on low volume and asset heavy infrastructure. Now since the underlying fundamentals of the sector have changed where volumes have gone up exponentially and zero-cost acceptance infrastructure (QR code) has developed, the cost regime has to change. Government has tried to instill a "work done" principle while coming up with costs of a digital transaction. As the cost of settling a transaction on UPI/BHIM is very nominal, NPCI has waived off switch charges. However, the individual's bank may or may not have IMPS charges.

You have said on many occasions that cost of digital transaction would one day be less than that of cash transaction. What is the government's roadmap to achieve this target?

Cost of a cash transaction is not apparent to us. Nonetheless, it is costly. RBI and other commercial banks spend Rs 21000 crore every year on currency management operations. On top of it, there are costs associated with fake currency and replacement of soiled and torn notes. Visa's report estimates the overall cost of cash upto 1.7% of GDP. As the digital transactions rise in volumes, its costs, mainly in terms of MDR, will come down and will eventually become cheaper than cost of printing, storing, transporting, verifying, distributing and replacing currency.

What are the major challenges in bringing down the cost of digital payments further and what could government do to cross these hurdles?

The major objective is to increase the adoption and use of digital payments in India so that cash usage drops to 5-6 per cent of GDP. Government has taken multi-pronged steps to increase digital payments - DigiDhan campaign for awareness and behaviour change, incentive schemes, cost rationalisation, wider choices of modes of digital payments and infrastructure creation through Bharat Net. Government has also understood the role of fast changing technology in financial services space and hence has allowed the sector to grow without reactive intervention. New Payment and Small Banks have adopted ICT for increased access. More than 900 new fintech startups have developed various innovative technologies such as voice and SMS based transactions which do not need internet. All these new developments with pro-active government support will bring down the cost of digital payments substantially.

Usage of big data, new financial technologies such as blockchain and distributed currency will transform the way banking services are delivered. Transformation has been visible through my experiences since the time when fishermen in Kerala used to run around banks for opening an account to now when they can open an account either online or by just using their Aadhaar and thumbprint. Such a revolutionary fast paced change led by private sector and pro-actively supported by the government presents a huge opportunity for India - to make a quantum jump forward towards a digital economy. 

10743 - Cash shortage to end by mid-January: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant - Indian Express

Cash shortage to end by mid-January: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

He said nearly 30 crore people who are without mobile connections can use Aadhaar and thumb impression or Iris connection for digital payments.

By: PTI | New Delhi | Published:December 16, 2016 3:55 pm

People queue outside a bank to withdraw cash and deposit their old high denomination banknotes. (Source: Reuters)

Cash shortages following the demonetisation of high value currency notes will end by mid- January, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said. Disruption in the economy was inevitable after this step, taken as India aspires to have become a USD 10 trillion economy, said a statement by industry body Ficci, quoting Kant. He heads the high-level committee set up the government to identify all possible modes of digital payments across sectors as it pushes on with its drive towards a cashless economy.

“The committee is well on its way towards establishing and monitoring an implementation framework with strict timelines to ensure that nearly 80 per cent of the transactions in India move to the digital-only platform,” Kant said. According to the statement, he emphasised that for sustaining a 7.5 per cent growth, digitisation is important as India cannot afford to have a parallel economy generated by high level of cash transaction.

India is the only economy in the world with 1 billion biometric authentications and 1 billion mobile phones, Kant said, adding that it has the digitisation infrastructure to leverage the JAM trinity — Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile. Noting that Aadhaar-enabled payments was the biggest disruption in India, he said nearly 30 crore people who are without mobile connections can use Aadhaar and thumb impression or Iris connection for digital payments.

In the next 6-7 months every smartphone user would be able to make Aadhaar based payment using a device based on inter-operating system, Kant said, pointed out that as India moves towards digitisation transaction costs would come down.

Highlighting various incentive schemes taken by the government to promote digital payments such as ‘Lucky Grahak Yojana’ and ‘Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojna’, the NITI Aayog CEO assured merchant-traders that in their move towards digitisation there would be no harassment by tax official by way of scrutiny of the previous years of books of accounts.

10735 - India has a billion phones and will technologically leapfrog in coming days: Amitabh Kant - Economic Times

India has a billion phones and will technologically leapfrog in coming days: Amitabh Kant

By ET Now | Updated: Dec 15, 2016, 05.17 PM IST

In a chat with ET Now, Amitabh Kant,, CEO, NITI Aayog, says UPIs, e-wallets have all grown by leaps and bounds since 8th November and expects a quantum jump, a huge fillip to digital payments. 

Edited excerpts: 

The measures that have been taken by the government to give a boost as far as cashless ecosystem is concerned, in your assessment, how effective will they be? 

The government has taken a series of measures to give digital payment economy a big boost. In addition to that, it is doing a lot of work in field. It is mobilising the district collectors. It is mobilising the education department. It is mobilising the food department. It is mobilising the rural development department. We are trying to convert this into a very big mass movement, a national movement where people move from cash to digital and find it easy and simple to do the transaction. There is a mental barrier because all of our life we have been dealing with cash but we are trying to break that barrier and I am quite sure that we will succeed because the poor people have got used to computers. They have got used to debit, credit cards. They got used to ATMs. They are very used to mobile phones. 

But the mobile payment gateway system in India is very much at it nascent stage right now. In your assessment what could be the top two or three things the government must do to really give a push to the payment gateway? 

How do you say it is at a nascent stage? Have you tried the Aadhaar-enabled payment system? It is one of the easiest systems anywhere in the world. You just need your Aadhaar number which I think everyone does. 99.1% of the people in India, adult population have an Aadhaar account and therefore you just remember your Aadhaar number. You used your thumb. You just put your bank, you do not need to remember your account number, just say your bank, state bank, it takes you straight into your account. Once you are in your account, you just do debit-credit. It is the easiest for debit or credit system. It is the easiest. 

It is the easiest but in terms of numbers… 

No, it will grow and expand. India is very fortunate. It has a billion Aadhaar cards. It has a billion phones and therefore it will technologically leapfrog in the coming days. India will be a very big disruptionist in this. Actually what Aadhaar system will do and what UPI system will do will be to ensure that India bypasses many steps in this technological innovation. It will bypass debit card. It will bypass credit cards. It will bypass ATMs and enable you to do open interoperable systems straight away. 

What is your back of the envelope calculations in the next six months? This whole thrust has really been given by the government. What could be the kind of numbers in terms of growth that you will see for transactions and maybe also any calculations on the value of these transactions? 

So I gave you the figures. Our UPIs, our wallets, have all grown by leaps and bounds since 8th November. We expect a quantum jump. We expect a huge fillip to digital payment. We expect that people will adopt this. People will give it a big thrust. 

Any numbers that you can share with us by April 2017 when this scheme ends what could be the kind of numbers that we talk? 

No it will be premature for me to talk about numbers but we expect a very major quantum jump.